Calamity Jane - Theatre Royal, 7th October 2014

As both an unashamed lover of musical theatre and a dismissive snob when it comes to television talent competitions, I was caught between a rock and a hard place right from the start. Staging a musical with a talent show winner is surely dumbing down theatre to make it more accessible to the sort of people who watch trash television isn’t it? As a warm up to tonight I went on YouTube and looked at a few choice moments from Jodie Prenger and was impressed with what I saw, including her auditions for I’d Do Anything from way back in 2008. Doris Day certainly has very big shoes to fill, and Miss Prenger certainly manages. I was right to reserve judgment as I believe that Jodie will enter the pantheon of musical greats alongside Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Julie Andrews and of course Doris Day.

The show itself is a triumph. Setting an elaborate musical on a small stage can’t be easy, but thanks to some imagination you don’t even notice that all of the action is taking place on one set. Without wanting to give too much away, the scenes involving the stagecoach is quite simply a work of genius. Do they use real horses? Book your ticket and find out for yourself. Casting actor musicians was another brilliant move, with a special mention for Tom Lister (Wild Bill Hickok) whose solo rendition of ‘Higher Than A Hawk’ on guitar is hairs raising on the back of your neck stunning.

Miss Prenger plays the scene stealing title role, telling tall tales and shooting (not to mention rooting and of course, tooting) as good as any man. Calamity is in love with Lt Danny with simmering love hate feelings for Wild Bill. The regulars of the Golden Garter want a performance from Adelaide Adams, the cigarette card beauty and the object of everybody’s affections, and Jane is going all the way to ‘Chic-ar-gi’ to see her and bring her back. She of course misses Adelaide who has left to play in Europe, which is a pity because she missed Christina Tedders putting in a gloriously sexy performance of ‘The Man That I’ll Marry Is Harry’. Due to a case of mistaken identity she asks Adelaide’s maid Katie Brown to return to Deadwood with her. Despite a shaky start when her cover is blown, Katie wins over the crowd and stays in Deadwood, stealing the heart of Danny away from Jane in the process. Not to worry though, as Wild Bill and Calamity Jane realise that they are in love with each other and the double wedding provides the perfect ending to the show. With a good old fashioned hoe-down as a finale to rouse an already appreciative audience into a rousing clap-along, a much deserved ovation brought the curtain down and sent everyone home with the songs ringing in their ears. Anybody who tells you that they weren’t singing ‘The Deadwood Stage’ on the tram journey home is a liar.

Originally written for the Nottingham Post, this is the unedited version.

Danny Baker - Going Off Alarming

Writer, presenter, comedian, and broadcaster; Danny Baker can pick up and drop an occupation quicker than Bert from Mary Poppins, and with a proper cockney accent. One thing that Baker excels at though is reeling off anecdotes at a machine gun speed. With him in the world it’s a shame that the An Audience With… format isn’t still on television because his show would be up there with Kenneth Williams and Billy Connelly’s.

Going Off Alarming is the second memoir, picking up in the early 1980s and the beginning of a burgeoning career in front of the camera. Actually, it begins with a brief visit back to the 1970s to recount a story he simply forgo to write about in Going to Sea in a Sieve; he was shot. Twice. Dedicating the book to his brother Mickey, who died, chronologically speaking, between the first and second volume without wanting to write a tragic life story, (‘To put it simply: my brother died. How do you think it fucking felt?’), we leap into the shooting story and really hit the ground running with a tale of a destructive pet tortoise that made me laugh out loud on public transport.

Rattling through stories about working with Ken Dodd, Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd, and Mel Brooks among others, it is the mention of his dad ‘Spud’ that draws the biggest laughs, especially his encounter with Harry Enfield.

A ridiculously successful television career followed by a fall from favour before shaking radio by the collar, via writing scripts and selling washing powder, this isn’t a mere autobiography, it’s a collection of hilarious stories with a slight biographical thread running through. This is the book version of the funny bloke at work.

Ending with the ominous lines ‘Still. As long as you’ve got your health eh? To be continued), book three can’t come soon enough; this could be the best autobiography I have ever read.

Going Off Alarming by Danny Baker is available from today and is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here.

Georgie Rose & Leah Sinead - Jam Cafe, Nottingham 19th September 2014

I only found out a few days ago that Georgie Rose and her band were playing at Jam Café last night and made a point of going along. She headlined with Mo Morris and Leah Sinead in that order as support. Not as cramped as it has been in the Jam Café on occasions, it was still a deservedly full house for the top of the bill act.

Mo Morris isn’t a name I am familiar with, so before writing this review I attempted to look up some music from Mo Morris and The Struggling String Band and have liked what I have heard, although there isn’t a great deal of material on page one of Google so have contented myself with a couple of YouTube clips of live performance. The reason I tried to listen to the band is simply because I wasn’t too impressed with Mo Morris opening the show as a solo artist; he has a nice voice and can play guitar, but on his own he isn’t distinguishable from every other man with an acoustic guitar that populates Nottingham. Nothing he did jumped out from the stage and demanded my attention, so I am going to reserve judgment until I have seen the band.

Leah Sinead’s band Keto were billed to appear, I haven’t seen them yet so was looking forward to it having listened to their Soundcloud. Sadly it wasn’t to be as during the afternoon Leah announced that she was doing the show solo due to one of the members having difficulty. The disappointment couldn’t last as Leah on her own can carry a show and that is exactly what she did, her beautiful voice filling the room and (almost) silencing those annoying people who seemingly go to gigs for a chat.

We had already been given a sample of Georgie during her sound check, which sounded better than some bands do during their set. In a city of solo artists I feel that, as good as she was that forming the band was the best move that she could have made to complete the missing piece of the Georgie Rose jigsaw. I’ve known her a while and worked with her on occasion and have already written that the band represents the grown up Georgie Rose. Predictably bringing the house down with a storming set, there was time to do something I don’t often do; hand out advice. Basically, I told her that she needs to get out of Nottingham before she joins that all too long list of music names pipped as the next big thing only to see it taken away leaving them to stagnate on the local circuit. I have every confidence that she won’t let this happen and will be able to break through the glass wall surrounding Nottingham. Some have managed, but not everyone who should have.

This is what I had to say about Georgie’s debut band gig last April.

Georgie plays again this afternoon in Trinity Square. I will be there.

Georgie’s website

Leah’s website

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

The Chuckle Brothers - Fifty Years of TO ME...TO YOU

Laurel and Hardy were once described as one stupid man and another stupid man who thought he was clever, which is exactly the dynamic on show when you watch the antics of Paul and Barry; The Chuckle Brothers. In fact, while I’m on the subject I would go so far as to say that The Chuckle Brothers are the nearest thing the world of comedy has ever produced that comes anywhere close to Stan and Ollie. Watch any old Laurel and Hardy film followed by an episode of Chucklevision and you’ll see what I mean.

As someone who only previously knew of the BBC series Chucklevision, the first surprise is right there in the title of this autobiography – Fifty Years of TO ME…TO YOU. Half a century of jokes from Paul and Barry all squeezed into one book. The book is written by Paul (the taller one) and follows the lives of the brothers born into something of a showbiz family, dad Gene Patton was a comedian once banned by the BBC for using the filthily obscene line “as smooth as a baby’s bottom”, with disgusting language like that it’s a wonder that his sons managed to carve out a successful career as a much loved staple of children’s television.

For fans of comedy history this provides a fascinating glimpse into an almost forgotten world. The slog of the working men’s’ clubs, summer seasons and pantomimes is all here along with the questionable boarding houses and long drives through the night to get home. The early taste of fame came via Opportunity Knocks, but opportunity didn’t knock again until Chucklehounds, a long forgotten predecessor to the classic Chucklevision. The television show that made them famous only gets one chapter, which seems odd at first but makes up a surprisingly small part of their story.

Although a fine comedian, Paul Elliott isn’t a great writer overall, the book is clumsy in places with too many attempts at a comic aside. Having said that he writes with a passion for the subject of family entertainment and this is a warm and enthusiastic look at the life of a much loved comedy act.

Fifty Years of TO ME…TO YOU is available from World’s Fair 

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

The Levellers - Greatest Hits

Memories abound of midweek club nights in the 1990s whenever I hear The Levellers, and it makes me feel old to find that they are releasing a Greatest Hits compilation. It isn’t until you see the tracks laid out in front of you that you realise what a huge body of work they have under their belts, so much so that ‘Carry Me’, the title track of their debut EP doesn’t surface until track 12 of disc 2. Kicking off with ‘Fifteen Years’ from the breakthrough 1991 album Levelling The Land, it is sheer class all the way.

Although at their commercial peak in the early 1990s, the band never stopped working on their own terms. This collection was handpicked and as such paints an honest and personal picture of the band’s timeline. Crowd pleasers and student disco floor fillers are in attendance of course; ‘One Way’, ‘Fifteen Years’ and ‘Just The One’ sit comfortably among ‘The Recruiting Sergeant’, ‘Burn America Burn’ and ‘Truth Is’, illustrating their political commentary and ear for a damn fine tune to boot.

As a cool little twist for a Greatest Hits album, several of the best known songs have been re-recorded with guest vocalists adding their own unique spin on things, especially interesting as the originals are there for comparison. Billy Bragg, Bellowhead, and Frank Turner all step up to the mic and Imelda May’s vocals on ‘Beautiful Day’ are worth the admission fee alone.

Levellers website

Release date: 29^th September 2014
Imelda May ‘Beautiful Day’ available as download and limited edition 7”: 15^th September

Additional formats with extra features available, see website for details.

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

The Spangle Corps - Things Will Change

The Spangle Corps are a band that seem (to me at least) to have been around for years, but they are only a few years old and only on their second EP; the first coming out in 2012 followed by the full length debut album In Time Everything Will Be Alright in 2013. Working on the EP one year, album the next pattern that I have invented in my head, this year it is time for an EP.

‘Things Will Change’ opens the short but sweet EP of the same name, a high quality slab of the pop-punk sound associated with the Corps, a worthy but misleading title track. Misleading because the remaining two tracks, ‘Feels Past Tense’ and ‘Rehydrate’ are acoustic-led ballads that showcase lead singer Vincent Watts’ excellent voice; the caveat being that there isn’t a lot of work for the rest of the band.

I know I have been critical of Nottingham’s overpopulation of acoustic performers in the past, but hearing a band/artist ‘going’ acoustic is a different matter and one that they pull off with aplomb. Newcomers to the band would be advised to check out the debut album to compare and contrast. While I don’t want to see them doing a reverse-Dylan and abandoning their sound full time, I would like to see them occasionally wander down this road again. Things Will Change, although only three songs long, is one of the best releases of the year for my money.

Available on CD from gigs and on digital release October 4th

The Spangle Corps on Facebook

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

Steve McGill - Covered: Volume 1

With fifteen years of service behind him, Steve McGill is a familiar name on the Nottingham circuit. Before listening to this album I would recommend taking in one of his previous offerings of original material to get a feel for his sound. The reason for this is simply because I would hate for him to be dismissed as simply a covers artist of no discernible merit. Mindful of the fact that there is little if any money in a large section of the local scene, McGill is one of the few artists, if not the only one, who acknowledges that the covers gigs are what provide for his family. With this string to his bow, he is also one of the few artists who will be recognised by an audience indifferent to the fact that Nottingham even has a music scene.

Covered is a collection of, would you believe, cover versions available from Steve’s website. You could call it his The Spaghetti Incident, but I won’t.

Opening with the Goo Goo Dolls song ‘Iris’, Steve has recorded the whole album as live, and in one take. Every track is perfectly suited to Steve’s gravelly, Cocker-esque voice (Joe, not Jarvis), and accompanied by nothing but an acoustic guitar. It is well worth listening all the way through, because in keeping with the ‘one take’ ethos, there’s the occasional false start (and an “oh bollocks”) and fluffed guitar, at one point asking if he can start again. A lot of musicians would be too insecure to expose this side of themselves in their work, but we’re all human and the occasional fuck up can be charmingly incorporated into a fine collection of songs.

‘Walking in Memphis’ could be an original song, such is McGill’s total immersion in the music, as could ‘Sun in the Morning’. Playing familiar songs from The Killers, David Grey, Deacon Blue, and Johnny Cash (a cover of a cover as it were; Cash’s version of the Nine Inch Nails classic ‘Hurt’), one can imagine watching him perform this album as a gig. Maybe that’s an idea for the follow up – a live collection of covers; this is subtitled as Volume One after all!